To judge from the various most-popular-search lists that are showing up as the year draws to a close, the average search user is a pubescent male, with an IQ that hovers in the low 90's, and who spends an unhealthy amount of time in his room.

perhaps the most important function of consumer search in the not-too-distant future will be the ability to help navigate the world of user-generated media and consumer opinions, which already are highly influential in search query results and comprise a growing share of total discoverable information online.

I'm from Canada, and up here, we examine every hockey trade in minute detail. We look at how the trade adds or detracts from the respective team's talent pools, and who came out the winner. So, the recent AOL-Google deal caught my attention. Why does Google want AOL? What's the strategy? Where's the win?

"Rohit"--who runs a company in India that handles search engine marketing outsourced from the U.S.--struck a chord with readers in Part 1 of this series on outsourcing. Letters poured in, with more than one correspondent curious to talk to Rohit about his company's services.

Heaven help anyone trying to lead an illicit double life on the convention circuit. Blogging and camera phones have turned us into a society of voyeurs. This is especially true in the search marketing industry. We are all content producers who publish our thoughts.

It can be useful, especially at year-end, to look back at where we've been in order to clarify where we're going. So first, a quick refresher course in how online marketing has evolved: Five years ago, companies were just beginning to get an understanding of what they wanted to accomplish online. Web sites were in their first or second generation, and the expectation level was relatively low.

Meet "Rohit." To some, he's a savior. To others, he's an anthropomorphic nightmare. If you work with him, you probably don't want to talk about him, and if you don't work with him, you probably need to know more about him.

Search marketers love granularity in campaign management. Correction. We love the results of granularity. That's an important distinction. Do search marketers want to spend 98 percent of their remaining time on earth manually tweaking a 50,000-keyphrase campaign? Not me.